text: Gus Grissom - Wikipedia  Lieutenant Colonel Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom (April 3, 1926  January 27, 1967) was one of the original NASA Project Mercury astronauts, a United States Air Force test pilot and a mechanical engineer. He was the second American to fly in space, and the first member of the ... In March 1951 Grissom received his pilot wings and commission as a...